The Fit Life: News and New Things #11

Disclosure: I received free jewelry from Momentum Jewelry as art of their ambassador program, however all opinions are my own 😉

Hey friends! Can you believe October is almost over?! Where is the time going? It seems like summer was just yesterday and now it’s threatening to snow here in Gillette (some places in Wyoming have already had snow – too soon!). Time is flying and I have to say I’m having fun 🙂 I have some announcements, challenges, coupons, and cool things coming up, so keep reading 🙂

I am now a Momentum jewelry Ambassador! I am also a event/expo rep for Momentum Jewelry, so you might see me at one of their booths some time in the near future.

Momentum makes some pretty cool motivational wrap bracelets, necklaces, and shoe tags! You can pick your colors and sayings, and even create your own quote for your bracelet.

I love the colors of my bracelets! The lime green adds a great pop of color to my outfits

Momentum is also offering a 20% off coupon for people who sign up for their newsletters until November 25th (just go to their website and look for the newsletter signup at the bottom of any page)! These make great Christmas gifts, so now’s a good time to get a head start on your Christmas shopping.

Check out my AWESOME Total-Body AMRAP workout that I guest posted for Heather today! This one is a great high-intensity workout – give it a try and tell me what you think!

I’m joining forces with Momsanity and several other great fitness bloggers to host the #GivePlanks challenge for the month of November! This fun challenge is going to be all about faith and fitness, and there will be prizes too. Anyone can join the challenge, just head over to the Momsanity website and get the details and sign up using this form!

Speaking of challenges, don’t forget to join my weight maintenance challenge that starts on November 6th! Check out my blog post about the challenge and if you’re game for this 2-month challenge, then get signed up directly here.

On a side note, I’m still working on finding a good replacement for ChallengeLoop for hosting free fitness challenges! I really enjoyed using that platform, it made things easy to keep track of, so I’m still looking. If you have any great suggestions, let me know in the comments 🙂

One of the protein powders I have been using is pumpkin seed protein powder. I am fairly limited as far as protein powders go (I can have hemp, sacha inchi, and pumpkin protein, but not too many others), so I have been trying to rotate my proteins so I don’t get sensitive to any one powder. I have found that the pumpkin seed protein powder is a little gritty, and the Hemp Pro 70 is super fine, so I use the pumpkin protein in balls and bites (like these ones which I happen to be making a lot!) and the Hemp Pro 70 in my homemade hemp protein pancakes (I’ll share the recipe one of these days). Trying to find ways to boost my protein here and there seems to help a bunch.

I’m trying a new mascara these days – and it’s going pretty good! I used the Benefit Roller Lash before and really loved it, so I decided to give They’re Real a try. So far so good! I don’t notice any smudging during workouts and since it’s not technically waterproof, it comes off pretty well with washing and eye makeup remover. I think I might like the formula in the Roller Lash better, but this one is still awesome and beats the cheap mascara any day.

I’m currently working on getting my Revo₂lution Running certification that was created by Jason Karp. I think I’m about half-way through the manuals (I’m not a fast reader, unfortunately) and the info has been great! I decided this would be an awesome addition to my credentials and even if I don’t use this for classes, coaching, or training, I can still use this info for my personal running programs. So much great info! My goal is to have everything done and the exam complete by the end of the year.

Since reading the books, I am re-evaluating my approach to running. I am taking it a little easier on my runs so my runner’s knee doesn’t flare up (here’s another reason to dial it back a bit in training) and so I can build my aerobic base again. I used to do Zumba 4+ times a week way back when and my cardio conditioning was excellent. I still have good cardiovascular fitness, I just need to take it up a notch and build my running base again since I dialed it back quite a bit because of my knee.

I will still be doing some HIIT and interval workouts, but adding them in conscientiously instead of so many times a week. We’ll see if this slower is better idea improves my race times 😉 At any rate, I am enjoying my workouts a bit more!

More sushi photos – just cuz! My favorite roll, the out of control roll. It has 4 kinds of fish and a smoky miso sauce on top. All the flavors together are amazing!

We had baked whole chicken the other night for dinner and I wanted to share how I made it 🙂 I had planned on cooking the chicken in the slow cooker but then realized that my slow cooker was too small, so in the oven it went. I loosely followed this recipe from Ina Garten (mostly just the cooking times) and stuffed onions and garlic inside and sprinkled creole spice and garlic powder on top. it turned out great! I had to cook it a little bit longer and I covered it for 20 minutes so it wouldn’t get too dark on the outside.

I found these cauliflower crumbles at Walmart and decided to give them a try. I’m a bit of a lazy cook when it comes to certain things (like washing lettuce), so I this made an easy way to get some extra veggies in our dinner! I made chicken fried rice (not really fried – sauteed I guess) and replaced half the brown rice with these cauliflower crumbles. Once they were cooked and softened, you couldn’t even tell the difference.

Just a fun idea for sandwiches if you can’t have bread or want to add more produce into your meals. The tart apples and ham really go well together!

We love these yummy soft licorice candies from YumEarth! We really like their organic suckers, and these candies are delicious! Definitely a must-try if you are looking for allergy-friendly treats

Free eBook: Effective workouts you can do anywhere in under 30 minutes!